One sentence to govern a life

Getting good at knowing the best way to spend your time and being unwavering in actually choosing to spend time in this way is the short but comprehensive formula for a good life.

Simple. But hard.

We should just meditate on this simple formula every night before bed and every morning when we wake up.

The two parts of this formula are KNOWLEDGE and EXECUTION and they are connected but each require other things.

Knowledge of how to best spend our time:

Introspection

Experience

Reading / learning from experience of others

Self-awareness

Trial and error

Critical thinking

Adaptation / self-evolution

Execution on your knowledge of what’s best:

Faith

Endurance / persistence

Pig-headed discipline

Focus

Independent thinking & collaborative effort

Resilance

Sacrifice

Delayed gratification

So, the formula of KNOWLEDGE of what to do –> EXECUTING (doing it) is so, so simple but actually getting your mind to commit to a course that is right for you and then actually following the plan and path requires a great deal of you. That’s why so few actually take the path.

But every motivational speech or self-help book or religion is just trying to help us see this. We don’t have to read another book to find it though. It’s simple. We just have to spend more time each day asking: Am I spending my time in the best way? If not, do I know a better way I could be spending my time? What is my plan for ceasing the ways I’m spending my time I don’t believe are best and starting in a new way my reasoning tells me is better?